Posted August 30, 2005; 11:02 a.m.

by Steven Schultz

While much of the attention surrounding hurricane Katrina has
focused on the danger of storm surges in coastal areas, the majority of
deaths from hurricanes in recent decades has occurred hundreds of miles
inland, according to Princeton Professor James Smith, who studies extreme flooding.

Hurricanes that hit the southern United States tend to travel deep into
the country dropping heaving rain until they run into the Appalachian
Mountains, where the rainfall can suddenly increase more than 10-fold,
causing severe floods

"If you take your eye off the ball after the hurricane hits land and
all the serious events associated with that, you can be in big
trouble," said Smith.

In the case of hurricane Camille in 1969 -- to which Katrina has been
compared because of its path and the coastal flooding it caused -- more
than 120 deaths occurred in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, Smith
said.

Smith, a professor of civil and environmental engineering,
studies the conditions that lead to extreme flooding and conducts field
work to measure the behavior of waterways during severe weather events.
Part of his research attempts to answer questions about how
geographical terrain affects the intensity of rainfall and how urban
environments affect the behavior of rainwater. He and his students are
preparing for possible field studies to observe the effects of
hurricane Katrina